George Galloway has been interviewed by police under caution over a speech where he said Bradford should be an “Israel-free zone”.

The Respect MP was questioned by officers on suspicion of inciting racial hatred following complaints after the speech.

The 59-year-old spoke to detectives voluntarily, West Yorkshire Police said.

He had said in the speech : “We don’t want any Israeli goods, we don’t want any Israeli services, we don’t want any Israeli academics coming to the university or the college, we don’t even want any Israeli tourists to come to Bradford, even if any of them had thought of doing so.”

A police spokesman said the case would be passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for a decision once their inquiry had concluded.

Both the MP for Bradford West and Daniel Taub, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, have been accused of creating disharmony in the city.

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Mr Taub, who visited on Monday to meet Jewish groups and leading councillors, tweeted a picture of himself holding an Israeli flag in the Greengate area.

Zulfi Karim, secretary of the Bradford Council for Mosques, said: “For an ambassador to unfurl an Israeli flag by a Welcome To Bradford sign is a deliberate provocation and not the behaviour I would expect of an ambassador of one of the world’s most important countries.”

Mr Karim called on both figures to stop trying to drum up support in the city.

He said: “This is to Mr Galloway and the ambassador: please do not bring your politics on to the streets of Bradford to create disharmony among our communities. If you have concerns, share them in your embassy or in parliament or in a neutral place, not in Bradford.”